Kilwon was born and raised in South Korea. He graduated from Chung-Ang University in South Korea with a BA in Arts and Craft. Since 1999, he has worked on multiple feature films in the Korean film industry as an art director, prop master and set designer. Kilwon was the Art Director on the motion picture, OASIS, which won awards in the Seattle International Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, and the Vancouver International Film Festival. THE WAY HOME (Jibeuro), he was the Art Director, has won several awards in Korea. Rikidozan (YEOKDOSAN) has won the Grand Bell Awards in 2004.

To further his knowledge of production design, he earned an MFA in the Production Design program at the American Film Institute (AFI) at 2010. He designed an AFI thesis film, THE ESCAPE, which won the Best Production Design in 2011 LA New Wave Film Festival. Since 2010, Kilwon has been working as an art director, set designer, and production designer on various film projects in the United States.

Kilwon was invited to Taiwan as an lecturer in 2013 program for TV production special list which organized by Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development , Ministry of Culture, Executive Yuan, Taiwan (R.O.C). Kilwon was the only American representative invited and to participate in the Berlin Talent 2014 as a production designer during Berlin Film Festival.